Systems and methods for assigning tasks based on usage patterns and resource capacities

ABSTRACT

Techniques relate to facilitating assignments of tasks to promote efficient resource timetables. A first communication from a client device is received that corresponds to an electronic request to sue a resource to complete a task. A task type of the task and a client corresponding to the electronic request are identified. Usage data corresponding to the task type and client are identified. A task-assignment duration is defined based on the usage data and a buffer time period. An availability in a timetable of a resource that is of a duration that is at least as long as the task-assignment duration is identified. A second communication identifying a start time of the availability is transmitted to the client device. A third communication is received that accepts the start time, and a fourth communication is transmitted to a device controlling use of the resource that identifies the client, task and availability.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication Nos. 62/054,516, filed on Sep. 24, 2014 and 62/222,432,filed on Sep. 23, 2015. Each of these applications is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

FIELD

This disclosure relates to facilitating a series of electroniccommunications to identify a resource with specifications and anavailability corresponding to parameters of a request.

BACKGROUND

Performance of various tasks frequently requires use of specializedresources. Quantities and capacities of resources may be limited,however, which may limit an extent to which resources may be availablefor a task at a requested time. Such limitations may result in aniterative communication exchange between a requesting device andresource devices to identify a responsive resource device associatedwith a resource load and configuration enabling handling of a task.Generating efficient resource-assignment can promote overall resourceaccess and task performance.

SUMMARY

In some embodiments, a system is provided for facilitating assignmentsof tasks to resources in particular time intervals based on usagepatterns and resource capacities. One or more interfaces receiveelectronic communications from one or more monitoring devices, receiveelectronic communications from one or more resource-controlling devices,transmit electronic communications to one or more resource-controllingdevices, receive electronic communications from one or more clientdevices; and transmit electronic communications to one or more clientdevices. A resource-controlling device, monitoring device and/or clientdevice may include one or more processors, one or more memories and oneor more interfaces for communicating with other devices and/or receivinginput.

A usage monitor monitors electronic communications, received via the oneor more interfaces, from monitoring devices to identify resource-usagedurations; and updates a usage-patterns data store to associate each ofone or more entities and each of one or more task types with usage databased on one or more of the identified resource-usage durations. Atimetable mirror monitors electronic communications, received via theone or more interfaces, from resource controlling devices to identifyupdates to timetables of the resources that indicate capacities toaccept new tasks during particular time periods; and updates a mirroredtimetable data store based on the identified updates to the timetables.

One or more load-balancing processors detect a first electroniccommunication, received via the one or more interfaces from a clientdevice, that corresponds to an electronic request to use a resource tocomplete a task, identify a task type of the task, and identify a clientthat corresponds to the electronic request. The one or moreload-balancing processors further access usage data, from theusage-patterns data store, associated with the client and the task type;identify, based on the usage data, a task-performance duration thatcorresponds to the electronic request for using the resource; and definea task-assignment duration based on the task-performance duration and abuffer time period. The one or more load-balancing processors furtheraccess, for each of one or more resources and from the mirroredtimetable data store, a timetable of the resource that indicates acapacity to accept new tasks during particular time periods; identify anavailability in the timetable of a resource of the one or more resourcesthat is of a duration that is at least as long as the task-assignmentduration; and generate a second electronic communication to betransmitted via the one or more interfaces to the client device thatidentifies a start time of the availability. The one or moreload-balancing processors further yet detect a third communicationreceived via the one or more interfaces from the client device thataccepts the start time; and generate a fourth electronic communicationto be transmitted via the one or more interfaces to a device controllinguse of the resource that identifies the client, the task and theavailability.

In various embodiments, each of one, more or all of the usage monitor,timetable mirror and one or more load-balancing processors can include aprocessor, set of processors, server, server farm, device and/or system.Two or more of the usage monitor, timetable mirror and one or moreload-balancing processors may be co-located or geographically separated.In some instances, each of one, more or all of the usage monitor,timetable mirror and one or more load-balancing processors may belocated in a facility. In some instances, each of one, more or all ofthe usage monitor, timetable mirror and one or more load-balancingprocessors may be in the cloud.

In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method is provided forfacilitating assignments of tasks to resources in particular timeintervals based on usage patterns and resource capacities. A firstelectronic communication is received from a client device thatcorresponds to an electronic request to use a resource to complete atask. A task type of the task and a client that corresponds to theelectronic request are identified. Usage data based on previousresource-usage durations during which at least one resource was used tocomplete previous tasks of the task type is accessed. Each of theprevious tasks is one associated with the client. Based on the usagedata, a task-performance duration is identified that corresponds to theelectronic request for using the resource. A task-assignment duration isdefined based on the task-performance duration and a buffer time period.For each of one or more resources, a timetable of the resource isaccessed that indicates a capacity to accept new tasks during particulartime periods. An availability in the timetable of a resource of the oneor more resources is identified that is of a duration that is at leastas long as the task-assignment duration. A second electroniccommunication is transmitted to the client device that identifies astart time of the availability. A third electronic communication isreceived from the client device that accepts the start time. A fourthelectronic communication is transmitted to a device controlling use ofthe resource that identifies the client, the task and the availability.

Further areas of applicability of the present disclosure will becomeapparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It shouldbe understood that the detailed description and specific examples, whileindicating various embodiments, are intended for purposes ofillustration only and are not intended to necessarily limit the scope ofthe disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appendedfigures:

FIGS. 1A and 1B show block diagrams of embodiments of an interactionsystems;

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an example of an interaction system;

FIG. 3 shows an architecture stack according to an embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 4 shows a portion of an architecture stack according to anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 shows a portion of an architecture stack according to anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 shows a portion of an architecture stack according to anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 shows a portion of an architecture stack according to anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 shows an interaction system in accordance with an embodiment ofthe invention;

FIG. 9 shows an illustration of a transformation of a resource-usagetime block according to an embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of a process for facilitating assignments oftasks to resources in particular time intervals based on usage patternsand resource capacities.

In the appended figures, similar components and/or features can have thesame reference label. Further, various components of the same type canbe distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a secondlabel that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the firstreference label is used in the specification, the description isapplicable to any one of the similar components having the same firstreference label irrespective of the second reference label.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The ensuing description provides preferred exemplary embodiment(s) only,and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configurationof the disclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the preferredexemplary embodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with anenabling description for implementing a preferred exemplary embodiment.It is understood that various changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope asset forth in the appended claims.

Referring first to FIG. 1A, a block diagram of an embodiment of aninteraction system 100 is illustrated. Generally, in interaction system100 a, data can be generated at one or more system components 102 and/oruser devices 104. Transaction management engine 106 can manage the flowof communications within interaction system. Transformative processingengine 108 can receive, intercept, track, integrate, process and/orstore such data.

Referring first to FIG. 1A, a block diagram of an embodiment of aninteraction system 100 a is illustrated. Generally, in interactionsystem 100 a, data can be generated at one or more system components 102and/or user devices 104. Transaction management engine 106 can managethe flow of communications within interaction system. Transformativeprocessing engine 108 can receive, intercept, track, integrate, processand/or store such data.

Data flowing in interaction system 100 a can include a set ofcommunications. Each of one, some of all communications can include (forexample) an encoding type, authentication credential, indication of acontent size, identifier of a source device, identifier of a destinationdevice, identifier pertaining to content in the communication (e.g., anidentifier of an entity), a processing or reporting instruction, aprocedure specification, transmission time stamp, and/or sensormeasurement. Data may, or may not, selectively pertain to a particularentity and/or client. Data can, depending on the implementation, includeindividually identifiable information and/or de-identified informationas it pertains to an entity and/or client. Data may, but need not,include protected information.

For example, a system component 102 can include, for example, a sensorto detect a sensor measurement and can thereafter generate and transmita communication that reflects the sensor measurement. The communicationmay be transmitted at routine times and/or upon detecting a threshold(e.g., one or more) number of measurements or a measurement satisfying atransmission condition (e.g., exceeding a threshold value). In someinstances, the sensor measurement corresponds to one reflecting aproperty of an object or entity (e.g., person) near the sensor. Thecommunication may then include an identifier of the object or entity.The identifier can be determined, for example, based on detection of anearby electronic tag (e.g., RFID tag), a detected user input receivedat a user interface of component 102 and/or data in a correspondingcommunication received from a user device.

As another example, a user device 104 can be configured to detect userinput received at a user interface of the device. The user input caninclude, for example, an identifier of an object or entity, aninstruction, a characterization of an object or entity, anidentification of an assessment to be performed, a specification of anaggregation or data processing to be performed, and/or an identificationof a destination for a data-analysis report. User device 104 can furtherbe configured to detect user input requesting particular data, togenerate a request communication (e.g., to be sent to transformativeprocessing engine), to receive the requested data and/or to present thereceived data.

Data can include information that identifies a person, such as personalinformation and/or demographic information. For example, the informationcan identify a person's name, age, sex, race, physical address, phonenumber, email address and/or social security number. Data may includeinformation collected by a government agent, employer, insurer, orschool or university, that relates to a past, present, or futurecondition or status (e.g., pertaining to employment, politicalinvolvement, occupation, health, or financial status) of any individual.For example, data may include information about past events.

Data may identify an entity being evaluated and/or one at least partlyperforming an evaluation. For example, a communication may identify afirst company as one being evaluated and a second company as oneevaluating a quality of a product of the first company. As anotherexample, a communication may identify a first service plan of a firstcompany as one providing an Internet network and may identify one ormore users providing speed checks over the network.

The depicted engines, devices and/or components can communicate over oneor more networks. A network of one or more networks can include a wirednetwork (e.g., fiber, ethernet, powerline ethernet, ethernet overcoaxial cable, digital signal line (DSL), or the like), wireless network(e.g., Zigbee™, Bluetooth™, WiFi™, IR, UWB, WiFi-Direct, BLE, cellular,Long-Term Evolution (LTE), WiMax™, or the like), local area network, theInternet and/or a combination thereof. It will be appreciated that,while one or more components 102 and one or more user devices 104 areillustrated as communicating via transformative processing engine 108and/or transaction management engine 106, this specification is not solimited. For example, each of one or more components 102 may communicatewith each of one or more user devices 104 directly via other or the samecommunication networks.

A component 102 can be configured to detect, process and/or receivedata, such as environmental data, geophysical data, biometric data,chemical data (e.g., chemical composition or concentration analysisdata), and/or network data. The data can be based on data detected, forexample, via a sensor, received signal or user input. A user device 104can include a device configured to receive data from a user and/orpresent data to a user. It will be appreciated that, in some instances,a component 102 is also a user device 104 and vice-versa. For example, asingle device can be configured to detect sensor measurements, receiveuser input and present output.

A component 102 can be configured to generate a communication that is inone or more formats, some of which can be proprietary. For example, animaging machine (e.g., one of one or more components 102) manufacturedby company A, located within a first facility (e.g., facility 110), andbelonging to a first client, may save and transfer data in a firstformat. An imaging machine (e.g., one of one or more components 102)manufactured by company B, located within the first facility (e.g.,facility 110), and belonging to the first client, may save and transferdata in a second format. In some examples, data from certain componentsis transformed, translated, or otherwise adjusted to be recognizable bytransformative processing engine 108. Thus, continuing with the examplefrom above, when the imaging machines manufactured by companies A and Bare located within the first facility belonging to the first client,they may nevertheless save and transfer data in different formats. Insome examples, one or more components 102 communicate using a definedformat.

In some examples, each of one or more components 102 are each associatedwith one or more clients within a same or different interaction systems.For example, certain ones of one or more components 102 may beassociated with a first client, while other ones of one or morecomponents 102 may be associated with a second client. Additionally,each of one or more components 102 may be associated with a facility 110(e.g., client facility). Each facility 110 may correspond to a singlelocation and/or processing focus. Exemplary types of facilities includeserver farm facilities, web-server facilities, data-storage facilities,technical-support facilities, telecommunication facilities, carefacilities and/or business operation facilities. For example, a firstfacility may include a structure at a first location at which one ormore resources (e.g., computational resources, equipment resources,laboratory resources and/or human resources) are provided. Each of theone or more resources may be of a first type in a first set of types. Aresource type can be identified based on, for example, a characteristicof the resource (e.g., sensor inclusion) and/or a capability ofproviding each of one or more services. Thus, for example, resources ata first facility may be better configured for handling a particular typeof service requests compared to those in another facility. As anotherexamples, different facilities may include resources of similar or sametypes but may vary in terms of, for example, user accessibility,location, managing client, etc.

Transmission of data from one or more components 102 to transformativeprocessing engine 108 may be triggered by a variety of different events.For example, the data may be transmitted periodically, upon detection ofan event (e.g., completion of an analysis or end of a procedure), upondetection of an event defined by a rule (e.g., a user-defined rule),upon receiving user input triggering the transmission, or upon receivinga data request from transformative processing engine 108. Eachtransmission can include, e.g., a single record pertaining to a singleentity, object, procedure, or analysis or multiple records pertaining tomultiple entities, objects, procedures, or analyses.

In some examples, at least some of one or more user devices 104 areassociated with facility 110. In some examples, at least some of one ormore user devices 104 need not be associated with facility 110 or anyother facility. Similar to one or more components 102, one or more userdevices 104 may be capable of receiving, generating, processing and/ortransmitting data. Examples of one or more user devices 104 include, forexample, a computer, a mobile device, a smart phone, a laptop, anelectronic badge, a set-top box, a thin client device, a tablet, apager, and other similar user devices). One or more user devices 104 maybe configured to run one or more applications developed for interactingwith data collected by transformative processing engine 108. Forexample, those user devices of one or more user devices 104 that are notassociated with facility 110 may be configured to run one or morethird-party applications that may rely in part on the data gathered bytransformative processing engine 108.

Each of one or more components 102 and one or more user devices 104 maybe utilized by one or more users (not shown). Each of the one or moreusers may be associated with one or more clients. For example, one ofthe one or more users can be associated with a client as a result ofbeing employed by the client, physically located at a location of theclient, being an agent of the client or receiving a service from theclient.

In some examples, one or more components 102 and one or more userdevices 104 may communicate with transformative processing engine 108and transaction management engine 106 via different information formats,different proprietary protocols, different encryption techniques,different languages, different machine languages, and the like. As willbe discussed with reference to FIG. 2, transformative processing engine108 is configured to receive these many different communications fromone or more components 102, and in some examples from one or more userdevices 104, in their native formats and transform them into any of oneor more formats. The received and/or transformed communications can betransmitted to one or more other devices (e.g., transaction managementengine 106, an entity device and/or a user device) and/or locally orremotely stored. In some examples, transformative processing engine 108receives data in a particular format (e.g., the HL7 format) orconforming to any other suitable format and/or is configured totransform received data to conform with the particular format.

One or more components 102 of facility 110 can include and/or has accessto a local or remote memory for storing generated data. In someexamples, the data is stored by one or more servers local to facility110. Such storage may enable facility 110 to retain locally datapertaining to its facility prior to (or in conjunction with) the databeing shared with transformative processing engine 108 and/ortransaction management engine 106. In some examples, the one or moreservers of facility 110 share data directly with a record service (notshown), and the record service makes the data available totransformative processing engine 108 and/or transaction managementengine 106. Once an electronic record is updated at facility 110, anindication of the update may be provide to the record service. Therecord service may then update a corresponding record associated withthe electronic record.

The record service can be granted access to the data generated and/ortransmitted by one or more components 102. In some examples, the recordservice includes a server or a plurality of servers arranged in acluster or the like. These server(s) of the record service can processand/or store data generated by one or more components 102. For example,one or more records can be generated for each entity (e.g., each recordcorresponding to a different entity or being shared across entities).Upon receiving a communication with data from an component (orfacility), the record service can identify a corresponding record andupdate the record to include the data (or processed version thereof). Insome examples, the record service provides data to transformativeprocessing engine 108.

Facility 110 can include one at which a resource is located and/orservice is provided. Irrespective of the type of facility, facility 110may update data, maintain data, and communicate data to transformativeprocessing engine 108. At least some of the data may be stored local tofacility 110.

A user interacting with a user device 104 can include, for example, aclient customer, client agent and/or a third party. A user may interactwith user device 104 and/or component 102 so as to, for example,facilitate or initiate data collection (e.g., by a component 102),provide data, initiate transmission of a data request, access dataand/or initiate transmission of a data-processing or data-storageinstruction. In some instances, one or more user devices 104 may operateaccording to a private and/or proprietary network or protocols. In otherexamples, one or more user devices 104 may operate on public networks.In any case, however, transformative processing engine 108 can haveaccess to the one or more components and can communicate with them via apublic, private and/or proprietary network or protocols. The use of oneor more private and/or proprietary protocols can promote secure transferof data.

Referring next to FIG. 1B, a block diagram of an embodiment of aninteraction system 100 b is illustrated. The depicted instance shows twofacilities 110 a, 110 b. In one instance, each of facilities 110 a, 110b corresponds to or includes one or more buildings. Each facility 110can include one or more units 112. In the depicted instance, a firstfacility 110 a includes two units 112 a and 112 b, and a second facility110 b includes one unit 112 c.

Each unit 112 may correspond to a particular space (e.g., as defined bygeographic coordinates, altitude, a floor, a room number, etc.) Unitswithin a given facility (e.g., 112 a and 112 b) may be geographicallyseparated from each other, such as being within or being differentrooms. In one instance, each of at least some units 112 within afacility may be of a same or similar type; may be configured for a sameor similar type of use and/or may have one or more same or similarspecifications or characteristics (e.g., dimensions, sizes, orintra-unit components). In one instance, each of at least some units 112within a facility may be of different types, may be configured fordifferent types of use and/or may have one or more differentspecifications or characteristics.

Within each unit may be one or more components 102 and/or one or moresensors 130. In various embodiments, a given component 102 and/or sensor130 may, or may not, be fixed in place (i.e., stationary), restrained tolimit mobility or fully movable. A component 102 may be configured to beused by an operator or user.

A sensor 130 may include, for example, a sensor configured to monitor acharacteristic of an ambient environment (e.g., motion, light,temperature or humidity). In one instance, a sensor 130 is a sensorcoupled to a component 102. For example, a sensor 130 may be configuredto detect whether an added weight has been placed on part of acomponent. As another example, a sensor 130 may be included within abadge reader component so as to detect badge-related signals (e.g., animage or RFID signal). As yet another example, a sensor 130 may beincluded within an equipment-tracking component so as to detectequipment tags. As still another example, a sensor 130 may include areceiver to receive signals from one or more signal sources (e.g., GPSsatellites or WiFi access points) to enable identifying a location of adevice coupled to or including the sensor.

A component 102 and/or sensor 130 may be configured to transmitelectronic communications to one or more other electronic devices. Theelectronic communications may be transmitted, for example, upondetecting a new type of signal (e.g., detecting a presence of a newdevice); at regular times or intervals; upon receiving a request; and/orupon detecting that a transmission condition has been satisfied. Theelectronic communication may be transmitted to a device that is near orremote from the component and/or sensor. The electronic communicationmay include (for example) sensor-collected data, inputs received at acomponent, an indication that an event has been detected, an indicationthat a transmission condition has been satisfied, an identifier of thecomponent or sensor, and/or a location of the component or sensor. Theelectronic communication may be transmitted, for example, over awireless network, WiFi network, short-range network, Bluetooth network,local area network, and so on.

A facility 110 may also include a monitoring device 132, which may tracka use characteristic of a resource (e.g., a unit or component). The usecharacteristic can include, for example, when, how or by whom a resourceis being used. In various instances, monitoring device 132 may or maynot be located within a unit 112 and/or facility 110. In some instances,monitoring device 132 can be configured to receive input (e.g., from anauthorized user), which may indicate a use characteristic (e.g., that ascheduled or unscheduled use is beginning or has ended, a time that ause has started or completed, an entity engaged in a use, and so on).

In some instances, monitoring device 132 may be (e.g., via a wireless orwired connection) connected to one or more components 102 and/or one ormore sensors 130. Such connections may enable monitoring device 132 toestimate a usage characteristic. For example, one or more intensityvalues (or a processed version thereof) from a light sensor or motionsensor may be compared to a threshold, and it may be determined that aunit is not being used if the value(s) are below a threshold. As anotherexample, it may be estimated that a unit is in use so long as aparticular type of component is detected as being within the unit. Asyet another example, it may be estimated that a unit is in use whensignals from a badge reader indicate that at least one person remains inthe unit.

Monitoring device 132 can manage and update usage data store 134. Usagedata store 134 can include usage data for (for example) particularresources, components, units, facilities, entities (e.g., clients),and/or use types. The usage data may include historical use data (e.g.,a date, duration, time, use type, etc. of one or more uses) and/orstatistics based thereupon. Thus, for example, usage data 134 mayindicate, for a given unit, use type, and client, an average andvariability of a duration of use of the unit by the client for the usetype. Usage data store 134 may, but need not, be part of monitoringdevice 132. In some instances, usage data store 134 is remote frommonitoring device 132, one or more units, one or more components and/orone or more facilities to which it pertains. In one instances, usagedata store 134 is in the cloud.

Interaction system 100 b can include one or more controlling devices136. Each controlling device 136 can manage and update a resourcetimetable for one or more resources (e.g., component or unit). Thetimetable may include a schedule that indicates that particular blocksof times have been assigned to (or held for) particular entities or usesand/or that other particular blocks of times remain available forassignment. An assigned block may include or may be associated with oneor more buffer time periods, such as a buffer time period to prepare aresource and/or a buffer time period to restore a resource.

In one instance, a controlling device 136 can be located within afacility or unit that includes, controls or is a resource pertaining toa resource timetable. In one instance, a controlling device 36 islocated remote from a facility or unit that includes, controls or is aresource pertaining to a resource timetable.

Controlling device 136 may be configured to locally detect user input orto receive communications that identify user input, where the user inputmay identify a parameter for the resource timetable and/or a request. Asone example, one or more detected parameters may identify a start time(e.g., date and/or time of day), end time, duration, entity or clientand/or use type for a time-block assignment. Controlling device 136 maythen verify that a time block consistent with the parameter(s) isavailable within a timetable and may generate an assignment of the timeblock to the client and/or for the use type. Generating the assignmentmay include updating a resource timetable data store 138 (e.g., whichmay be included within and/or remote from controlling device 136) so asto reflect the assignment and/or change an availability status of theassigned time period. Generating the assignment may also include or maytrigger transmitting a communication to another device (e.g., a clientdevice 105 or load balancing system 120). The communication may identifyone or more parameters of the assignment.

As another example, a request may include a request to identify generalavailabilities that correspond to identified times (e.g., an identifieddate range). As yet another example, a request may include a request toidentify time periods available for a particular entity, which mayinclude general availabilities and time periods being held for thatentity.

As yet another example, monitoring device 132 may receive acommunication that identifies one or more parameters for a proposedassignment. Monitoring device 132 may present information correspondingto the proposed assignment via a user interface and may detect inputindicating whether it has been accepted. If so, the assignment may begenerated. If not, a response communication may be transmittedindicating this lack of acceptance, which may also include one or moreother time blocks proposed for assignment.

In some instances, a single resource device 140 may act both as amonitoring device 132 and controlling device 136.

A load balancing system 145 may communicate with one or more: components102, client devices 105, sensors 130, monitoring devices 132 and/orcontrolling devices 136. Load balancing system 145 may itself manageand/or update a usage data store 134 and/or resource timetable datastore 138. In some instances, part or all of one or both of these datastores may mirror other corresponding data stores (e.g., located atand/or controlled by devices at one or more facilities). For example,load balancing system 145 may receive periodic communications (e.g.,that may, but need not, be responsive to requests for such) from one ormore controlling devices 136 and/or monitoring devices 132 that identifyan update of a timetable associated with a particular facility, unit orresource or an update of usage data associated with a particular entity,use type, facility, unit or resource. Load balancing system 145 mayupdate a corresponding data structure in a mirrored resource timetabledata structure and/or usage data structure.

In one instance, load balancing system 145 may communicate with anindependent server or device that manages resource timetables (e.g., byreceiving communications from a plurality of controlling devicescontrolling individual resource timetables and by updating an aggregateddata structure to reflect current assignments and availabilities). Suchcommunications may enable load balancing system 145 to efficiently querymultiple resource timetables and/or identify availabilities.

Load balancing system 145 may facilitate handling of assignmentrequests, timetable management and/or resource assignments. For example,load balancing system 145 may receive an electronic request from aclient device 105 to generate a task assignment. Assigning aclient-associated task to a given resource can include, for example,reserving a space and/or resource usage for the client for a designatedtime period such that the client can perform a task at the space duringthe designated time period. Client device 105 may correspond to a userdevice. Client device 105 may include, for example, a server, desktopcomputer, laptop computer, tablet or smart phone. Client device 105 maybe configured to transmit and receive communications over a network,such as over a WiFi network and/or short-range network. In variousinstances, a given client may be associated with multiple client devices105 or a single client device 105. Client device 105 may include adevice configured to receive user input that identifies schedulingconstraints and/or preferences for the electronic request. Theelectronic request may, but need not, include or be associated with oneor more parameters, such as a time or time period (e.g., date range,date and time of day), geographic location (e.g., of a client device orrequested unit or resource), use type, and/or task-assignment duration.

Load balancing system 145 may query a local or remote data store toidentify usage data associated with at least one of the parameters. Forexample, the query may be to identify a maximum and minimum time ofprevious uses associated with a client and a use type corresponding tothe request. As another example, the query may be to identify apercentage of instances in which a usage duration of a unit exceeded arequested usage duration for a particular client corresponding to therequest. As yet another example, the query may be to identify all usagedurations associated with a particular use type and facilitycorresponding to the request and with a recent time period, so as toenable load balancing system 145 to generate a use statistic (e.g., amedian use time).

Based on the usage data, load balancing system 145 may determine whetherand/or how to transform the request. For example, if usage dataindicates that an actual usage time is likely to exceed a requestedusage time, the requested usage time may be transformed into a newrequested usage time based on the usage data. The new requested usagetime may then be used to identify any availabilities in resourcetimetables that sufficiently correspond to the request. A determinationas to whether an actual usage time is likely to exceed a requested usagetime may include determining whether an actual usage time has exceeded arequested usage time for at least a threshold percentage of pastinstances or determining whether a statistic generated based on actualusage time exceeds a statistic generated based on requested usage time(e.g., an average or median time). Thus, in various instances, arequested usage time is transformed into a new requested usage time inall instances or in a conditional manner.

A new requested usage time may be identified as corresponding to a usagestatistic. For example, a new requested usage time may be identified byidentifying an average (or median or percentile mark) extent to whichprevious requested usage times differed from corresponding actual usagetimes and factoring a requested usage time of the present request by theaverage. As another example, a machine-learning technique (e.g., aneural network) may be used to generate an explicit or hiddenrelationship between inputs (e.g., request parameters and/or resourcetimetables) and a new requested usage time. As yet another example, afixed relative (e.g., 15%) or absolute (e.g., 30 minute) addition may beadded to the requested usage time when it is determined that therequested usage time is to be transformed.

Load balancing system 145 may then facilitate assigning a resource inresponse to the request. The facilitation may include generating andtransmitting a transformed request to one or more controlling devices136. In some instances, the transformed request includes modified and/oradditional parameters as compared to a request received from a clientrequest. For example, a transformed request may include a request with anew requested usage time.

The facilitation may include identifying an availability in a resourcetimetable for the request. For example, load balancing system 145 mayquery a resource timetable data store 138 that is local to and/orcontrolled by the system to identify availabilities in a timetable of aresource that would correspond to the request (e.g., and transformedusage data). If multiple corresponding availabilities are identified,load balancing system 145 may (in some instances) select a singleavailability based on a selection technique (e.g., to bias or selectbased on how soon the availability is, how geographically close theresource is to a location associated with the electronic request, aclient preference, and so on). Whether a single availability or multipleavailabilities are identified, load balancing system 145 may transmit acommunication to a controlling device 136 that identifies informationassociated with the request and the availabili(ies) and/or acommunication to client device 105 that identifies informationassociated with the availability(ies) (e.g., a time, resourceidentifier, resource location, resource specification, etc.).

The one or more controlling devices 136 (e.g., to which a transformedrequest is transmitted and/or for which timetables are considered toidentify request-corresponding availabilities) may include, for example,a device corresponding to each of one or more specifically identifiedresources in a request from a client, a device corresponding to each ofone or more resources satisfying a location criterion (e.g., beinglocated within a defined absolute or relative distance from a locationassociated with the request or client device), a device corresponding toeach of one or more resources having a specification corresponding to atask type (e.g., usage type) associated with the request, a devicecorresponding to one or more institutions having an affiliation matchingan affiliation associated with the request, and so on.

Referring next to FIG. 2, a block diagram of an example of aninteraction system 200 is shown. Interaction system 200 includes atransformative integration engine 202. Transformative integration engine202 is an example of transformative processing engine 108 discussed withreference to FIG. 1. Interaction system 200 also includes one or moregeneration components 204. In particular, one or more generationcomponents 204 includes an equipment component 206, a lab systemscomponent 208, a scheduling component 210 and other generation component212. One or more generation components 204 are examples of one or morecomponents 102 discussed with reference to FIG. 1.

Generally, one or more generation components 204 includes any suitabledevice or system capable of generating data in the context of aninteraction system. For example, the other generation component 212 mayinclude a sensor on a door, and equipment component 206 may include asophisticated computer-controlled laser device. In either case, eachgeneration component generates some type of data. For example, the dataprovided by the sensor may be used to address security concerns orassessing heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) costs for aninstitution. The data provided by the laser device may have beenprovided while engaged in a procedure and may then be used by otherentities in the future to decide how to use the device.

As discussed in further detail herein, data generated by one or moregeneration components 204 can be of a variety of formats, some of whichmay be proprietary. For example, a single component can generate data inmultiple formats, different components can generate data in differentformats, and/or different component types can result in generation ofdata in different formats. In some instances, formatting of a data candepend on a service having been provided, a user initiating datageneration, a destination to receive the data, a location at which aservice was provided, etc. In some examples, a typical interactionsystem includes thousands of generation components producing data inhundreds of formats. In order to harness the power that comes from sucha large amount of data to make informed decisions, it is desirable thatall, or at least a large portion of the data, is shared. Use oftransformative integration engine 202 in accordance with techniquesdescribed herein may achieve this design—making large amounts of data,in many different originating formats available to various types ofusers, via one or more interfaces.

While one or more generation components 204 are illustrated adjacent toeach other, it is understood that each may be located within onefacility or that the components may be spread out among many facilities.In addition, in some examples, one or more generation components 204belong to different clients.

Turning now to equipment component 206, this component includes anymachine, contrivance, implant, or other similar related article, that isintended to aid in reaching a particular objective. In some instances,equipment component 206 includes one or more sensors to detectenvironmental or other stimuli. Equipment component 206 can include, forexample, equipment to monitor a stimulus, detect stimulus changes,detect stimulus-indicative values, and so on. Exemplary equipmentcomponents 206 include an imaging device, a device that detects andcharacterizes electrical signals, a device that detects pressure, and/ora device that detects concentration of one or more particular elements,compounds and/or gases.

As illustrated, equipment component 206 includes transformative adaptor216. In some examples, transformative adaptor 216 is a device thattransforms, translates, converts, or otherwise adjusts output data fromequipment component 206. For example, an equipment component 206 can bea scanner that outputs its results in format A, but the majority ofother scanners in the interaction system output their results in formatB. Transformative adaptor 216 may be implemented to convert or otherwiseadjust the results in format A to conform closer to format B. Forexample, the conversion from format A to format B may be performed usinga conversion rule, which may be user-define or learned. Transformativeintegration engine 202 may perform similar tasks as it relates to alldata generated within interaction system 200. In this manner,transformative adaptor 216 can perform an initial step in the process oftransformation, translation, conversion, or adjustment of the output ofequipment component 206. In some examples, transformative adaptor 216 isimplemented in hardware, software, or any suitable combination of both.In some examples, other transformative adaptors (not shown) may beimplemented within others of one or more generation components 204. Insome examples, equipment component 206 may not include transformativeadaptor 216.

Lab systems component 208 includes any suitable laboratory equipment orsystem that is intended to analyze material, such as biologicalmaterial. This includes, for example, laboratory equipment that analyzesbiological samples; electric microscopes; ultracentrifuges; datacollection devices, including Kymographs, sensors connected to acomputer to collect data; monitoring devices; computers used to reportresults of lab tests, and other similar laboratory equipment. Each ofthe above-listed components generates data that is provided (directly orindirectly) to transformative integration engine 202.

Scheduling component 210 includes any suitable computing devices usedfor business-related purposes with respect to interaction system 200.For example, scheduling component 210 can be configured to schedule aresource for allocation for a particular entity during a particular timeslot. Scheduling component 210 can monitor a schedule for the resourceand can identify one or more available time slots that may be secured bya particular entity. Upon receiving a scheduling indication, schedulingcomponent 210 may update a schedule of a resource to reflect that aparticular time slot is to be allocated for service of a particularentity.

Each of one or more generation components 204 and the user device 228may include individual and/or shared storage systems, one or moreprocessors, a user interface, a network connectivity device, and one ormore ports. The storage system include memory that may be implemented,e.g., using magnetic storage media, flash memory, other semiconductormemory (e.g., DRAM, SRAM), or any other non-transitory storage medium,or a combination of media, and can include volatile and/or non-volatilemedia. The storage systems may also be configured to storecomputer-executable code or instructions for interacting with the userinterface and/or for one or more applications programs, such as anapplication program for collecting data generated by the particulargeneration component.

The one or more processors may be configured to access the operatingsystem and application programs stored within the storage systems, andmay also be configured to execute such program code. The one or moreprocessors can be implemented as one or more integrated circuits, e.g.,one or more single-core or multi-core microprocessors ormicrocontrollers, examples of which are known in the art. In operation,the one or more processors can control the operation of the particularcomponent. The one or more processors may access and execute the programcode and at any given time.

The user interface can include any combination of input and outputdevices. In some instances, a user can operate input devices of the userinterface to invoke the functionality of the particular component oruser device. For example, the user interface may enable the user toview, hear, and/or otherwise experience output from component or userdevice via the output devices of the user interface. Examples of outputdevices include a display, speakers, and the like.

The network connectivity device may enable the component or user deviceto communicate with transformative integration engine 202 and othercomponents or other user devices via one or more networks. The one ormore networks may include any suitable combination of cable, cellular,radio, digital subscriber line, or any other suitable network, which maybe wired and/or wireless. In some examples, the network connectivitydevice may enable the component or the user device to communicatewirelessly with various other components and/or transformativeintegration engine 202. For example, the components may includecircuitry to enable data communication over a wireless medium, e.g.,using near-field communication (NFC), Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth®(a family of standards promulgated by Bluetooth SIG, Inc.), Zigbee,Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 family standards), or other protocols for wirelessdata communication.

The one or more ports may enable the component or the user device toreceive data from one or more sensors. The sensors may be any suitabletype of sensor to capture data. Such captured data may be shared withtransformative integration engine 202 in accordance with techniquesdescribed herein. In some examples, the sensors may also be configuredto detect the component's or the user device's location and otherdetails about the component or the user device. In some examples, thecomponent and user device may include global positioning chips fordetermining a geolocation. Such geolocation information may be relevantto analyzing the data provided by the component or the user devicelocated at the geographic location.

Transformative integration engine 202 includes an aggregation engine218, an interoperability engine 220, an access management engine 222, aninterface engine 224, and a data store 226. Generally aggregation engine218 is configured to collect data from multiple communications. The datamay be from one or multiple generation components 204 and/or may be of asame or different formats. Aggregation engine 218 may be configured toperform one or more operations on the collected data. For example,aggregation engine 218 may tag data, log data, perform protocolconversion, and may support one-to-many communications. The collectionmay be asynchronous. In some examples, the data has been saved locallyin connection with one or more generation components 204 in manydifferent formats having many different data structures.

Aggregation engine 218 can identify data to be aggregated based on, forexample, infra-communication data, a current time, a source generationcomponent, and/or one or more aggregation rules. For example, anaggregation rule may specify that data is to be aggregated across allcommunications that include content with a same entity identifier. Anaggregation may be dynamic. For example, aggregated data may reflectthat from within a most recent 12-hour period. Thus, an aggregation maybe updated in time to exclude older data from the aggregation and toinclude newer data.

Aggregation engine 218 can be configured to provide data from one ormore communications to interoperability engine 220. Interoperabilityengine 220 can be configured to perform one or more operations on thereceived data and store it in data store 226. For example,interoperability engine 220 may perform semantic tagging and indexing ofdata. This may include extracting field values from data, categorizingdata (e.g., by type of data, characteristic of an entity, location offacility, characteristic of facility, and the like), anonymizing orpartially-anonymizing data, and the like. Interoperability engine 220may also include a high availability cache, an alerts engine and a rulesengine. In some examples, interoperability engine 220 operatessynchronously.

From interoperability engine 220, data flows to data store 226. Datastore 226 (and any other data store discussed herein) may include one ormore data stores, which may be distributed throughout two or moredifferent locations (e.g., present on different devices, which caninclude devices of different entities and/or a cloud server). In someexamples, data store 226 includes a general data store 230, anoperational data store 232, and an entity-based data store 234. Withineach of the data stores 230, 232, and 234 is stored data. Depending onthe structure of the particular data store, certain data stores mayinclude rules for reading and writing. The data stores 230, 232, and 234may include records, tables, arrays, and the like, which may berelational or non-relational. Depending on the data store, records forindividual entities, business and analytics information, output datafrom one or more generation components 204, and the like may beretained. The data within the data stores 230, 232, and 234 includeelements or tags such that a particular data (e.g., for a single entity,protocol, etc.) can be retrieved.

Access management engine 222 is configured to manage access to featuresof transformative integration engine 202, including access to the dataretained in data store 226. For example, access management engine 222may verify that a user device such as user device 228 is authorized toaccess data store 226. To verify the user device 228, access managementengine 222 may require that a user of the user device 228 input ausername and password, have a profile associated with the interactionsystem, have paid a subscription fee associated with access to datastore 226, and the like. Access management engine 222 may also verifythat the user device 228 has an IP address or geographical location thatcorresponds to an authorized list, that the user device 228 includes aplug-in for properly accessing data store 226, that the user device 228is running certain applications required to access data store 226, andthe like.

Interface engine 224 is configured to retrieve the data from data store226 and provide one or more interfaces for interacting with elements oftransformative integration engine 202. For example, interface engine 224includes an interface by which an application running on user device 228can access portions of data within data store 226.

Turning next to FIG. 3, an architecture stack 300 is shown. In someexamples, techniques relating management of data are implemented inaccordance with architecture stack 300. And while architecture stack 300is illustrated as having a particular structure, it is understood thatother structures, including those with more or less layers thanillustrated, is within the scope of this specification. In someexamples, architecture stack 300 is implemented across an interactionsystem having a plurality of systems belonging to the same client orspread across different clients. Thus, architecture stack 300 can beused to integrate different systems of different organizations,entities, and the like and to provide a fluid sharing of informationamong elements within the interaction system and without the interactionsystem. In some instances, a multi-layer part of architecture stack 300is implemented at a single system or device within an interactionsystem.

The different layers of architecture stack 300 will be describedgenerally with reference to FIG. 3 and in detail with reference tosubsequent figures. Architecture stack 300 includes a receiving layer302 as the bottom-most layer. Receiving layer 302 includes receivingdata from elements that share data with other elements within anaggregation layer 304. For example, as detailed herein, receiving layer302 can include receiving data from generation components that generatedata. As such, receiving layer 302 is where data that has been createdis received. In some examples, the data within receiving layer 302 maybe in its raw formats. The output may then be transmitted to aggregationlayer 304. In some examples, components of receiving layer 302 may havecomplimentary layers to facilitate data transfer. For example, thecomponents may include a data generation and/or a data transmissionlayer for providing data to receiving layer 302.

Elements of aggregation layer 304 aggregate the data generated by theelements of receiving layer 302. For example, the elements ofaggregation layer 304 may include aggregation engines that collect datafrom generation components located within receiving layer 302. Suchaggregation may be performed periodically, in response to a userrequest, according to a schedule, or in any other suitable manner. Insome examples, data of aggregation layer 304 may be aggregated accordingto input and/or rules and may aggregate across records pertaining to,e.g., a facility, entity, time period, characteristic (e.g., demographiccharacteristic or condition), outcome, and any other suitable inputand/or rules. The aggregation may include compiling the data, generatinga distribution, generating a statistic pertaining to the data (e.g.,average, median, extremum or variance), converting the data,transforming the data to different formats, and the like.

Next, architecture stack 300 includes an active unified data layer 308.Elements of active unified data layer 308 receive data from the elementsof the other layers and store such data in a unified manner. In someexamples, this may include storing the data in a manner that allows forlater searching and retrieval using a defined set of method calls,techniques, and or procedures. For example, the data may be stored suchthat a different application can access the data in a standard orunified manner. Thus, elements of active unified data layer 308 mayreceive information collected or generated within aggregation layer 304and make certain adjustments to the data (e.g., translations, tagging,indexing, creation of rules for accessing the data, conversion offormatting of the data, generation of compressed versions, and the like)prior to retaining the data within one or more data stores accessiblewithin active unified data layer 308.

Architecture stack 300 also includes an access management layer 310,which can include an audit/compliance layer 312 and/or an agency layer314. Access management layer 310 includes elements to manage access tothe data. For example, access management layer 310 may include elementsto verify user login credentials, IP addresses associated with a userdevice, and the like prior to granting the user access to data storedwithin active unified data layer 308.

Audit/compliance layer 312 includes elements to audit other elements ofarchitecture stack 300 and ensure compliance with operating procedures.For example, this may include tracking and monitoring the other elementsof access management layer 310.

Agency layer 314 includes an access location (e.g., a virtual privatenetwork, a data feed, or the like) for elements of agencies that areinterested in the operations of the interaction system in whicharchitecture stack 300 is implemented. For example, agency layer 314 mayallow a governmental entity access to some elements within architecturestack 300. This may be achieved by providing the governmental entity adirect conduit (perhaps by a virtual private network) to the elements ofaccess management layer 310 and the data within active unified datalayer 308. Audit/compliance layer 312 and agency layer 314 aresub-layers of access management layer 310.

Architecture stack 300 also includes interface layer 316. Interfacelayer 316 provides interfaces for users to interact with the otherelements of architecture stack 300. For example, clients, entities,administrators, and others belonging to the interaction system mayutilize one or more user devices (interacting within application/devicelayer 320) to access the data stored within active unified data layer308. In some examples, the users may be unrelated to the interactionsystem (e.g., ordinary users, research universities, for profit andnon-profit research organizations, organizations, and the like) and mayuse applications (not shown) to access the elements within architecturestack 300 via one or more interfaces (e.g., to access data stored withinactive unified data layer 308). Such applications may have beendeveloped by the interaction system or by third-parties

Finally, architecture stack 300 includes application/device layer 320.Application/device layer 320 includes user devices and applications forinteracting with the other elements of architecture stack 300 via theelements of interface layer 316. For example, the applications may beweb-based applications, entity portals, mobile applications, widgets,and the like for accessing the data. These applications may run on oneor more user devices. The user devices may be any suitable user deviceas detailed herein.

Turning next to FIG. 4, a diagram 400 is shown that depicts a portion ofarchitecture stack 300 according to an embodiment of the invention. Inparticular, the diagram 400 includes receiving layer 302, aggregationlayer 304, aggregation layer 306, and a portion of active unified datalayer 308. Receiving layer 302 receives data from one or more components410-418. Components 410-418 are examples of one or more generationcomponents 204. Components 410-418 may be spread across multiplefacilities within a single or multiple clients. In some examples,components 410-418 may include complimentary layers to facilitate datatransmission. For example, components 410-418 may include a transmissionlayer, generation layer, and/or a receiving layer to communicate data atreceiving layer 302 and, in some examples, receive data from receivinglayer 302.

In some instances, two or more of components 410-418 generate dataaccording to different formats. The data can then be transformed,translated, or otherwise adjusted before an aggregation engine 420(e.g., aggregation engine 218) or a third-party aggregation engine 422(e.g., aggregation engine 218) collects the data. In some examples, theadjustment takes place within receiving layer 302. Thus, an adaptor 424is associated with component 412 located in receiving layer 302. Adaptor424 is an example of transformative adaptor 216. Adaptor 424 isimplemented, as appropriate, in hardware, software, or any suitablecombination of both. For example, transformative adaptor 216 may be abolt-on adaptor that adjusts data as such data leaves component 412.

Other adaptors, such as adaptor 426 and adaptor 428, are implementedwithin aggregation layer 304. These adaptors can function in a similarmanner as adaptor 424. In some examples, the data provided by component414 is transmitted through adaptor 426 prior to being directed toaggregation engine 420. The data provided by component 416 istransmitted through aggregation layer 304 and/or enters aggregationengine 420 without having first traveled through an adaptor. The dataprovided by component 418 is transmitted through aggregation layer 304and through adaptor 428. In some examples, component 418 provides forstreaming of data. The data provided by component 410 is transmitteddirectly to third-party aggregation engine 422.

Aggregation engine 420 and third-party aggregation engine 422 functionin a similar manner. In some examples, third-party aggregation engine422 is operated by a different entity than the entity that operatesaggregation engine 420 and may belong to different clients or adifferent interaction system. This may be because the data collected bythird-party aggregation engine 422 differs in some way from the datacollected by aggregation engine 420. In any event, aggregation engine420 is configured to perform integration of data, including genericintegration. For example, aggregation engine 420 performs one or moreoperations on data including tagging, logging, and protocol conversion.Aggregation engine 420 also supports one-to-many communications of data.In some examples, data flows between aggregation engine 420, thethird-party aggregation engine 422, and some of components 410-418 andelements of active unified data layer 308.

Referring next to FIG. 5, a diagram 500 is shown that depicts a portionof architecture stack 300 according to an embodiment of the invention.In particular, diagram 500 includes active unified data layer 308 and aportion of access management layer 310. Active unified data layer 308,as illustrated in diagram 500, includes an interoperability engine 502(e.g., interoperability engine 220), a transaction management collectionengine 504, a data store integrity engine 506, and a data store 508(e.g., data store 226). Generally, interoperability engine 502 receivesdata from elements within aggregation layer 304 (e.g., from aggregationengine 420) and performs one or more operations with respect to thedata. Interoperability engine 502 also facilitates storage of at least aportion of the processed information in data store 508.

Transaction management collection engine 504 is implemented as part oftransaction management engine 106. Transaction management collectionengine 504 is configured to generate message indicators identifyingflows of data by and between elements of an interaction systemimplemented using the techniques described herein. The flows ofinformation include messages which include data, and the messageindicators include unique message identifiers that can be used toidentify the messages. The unique message identifiers includeinformation that can be used to uniquely identify the messages. Forexample, a unique message identifier for a particular message caninclude a concatenation of the following information stored in a table:a source application, a facility, a message type, and a message controlidentification (ID). The unique message identifier can also be themessage control ID. The unique message identifier may be created asmessages including data are transmitted from aggregation layer 304. Thetable may be stored in association with the transaction managementplatform 528.

In some examples, the table also includes information for tracking theprogress of the message from an origination node to a destination node.For example, typically when a message (e.g., any communication of data)is first received by transformative processing engine 108 (e.g.,interoperability engine 502), transaction management engine 106 (e.g.,transaction management collection engine 504 of transaction managementengine 106) may generate a unique identifier for the message in order totrack that message as it moves throughout the interaction system. Theunique identifier may be included in the header of the message such thatwhen the next node (e.g., component, device, server, etc.) aftertransformative processing engine 108 receives the message, that node canreport back to transaction management engine 106 that it saw themessage. In this manner, transaction management engine 106 may enableend-to-end tracking of messages for the life of the message.

In one example, the messages are requests. The requests may be generatedbased on user input at one of the components. The requests may bereceived by transformative processing engine 108 and integrated into thesystem. In some examples, transaction management engine 106 may benotified that the requests have been received and may therefore beconfigured to generate message IDs for each request. These message IDsmay then be associated with each of the requests. As the requestscontinue to move throughout the interaction system (e.g., away fromtransformative processing engine 108), transaction management engine 106may be track their movement using the message IDs. If one of therequests does not make it to its destination, transaction managementengine 106 (or part of the transaction management platform 528) maydetermine why the request was stopped. In some examples, this cause maybe hardware related (e.g., an unplugged Ethernet cable, a broken router,etc.), software related (e.g., a router routing to the wrong location),or any other reason for orders not arriving at their correctdestination.

In some examples, transaction management engine 106 (e.g., transactionmanagement collection engine 504 of transaction management engine 106)may receive the message and/or message identifier directly from one ofcomponents 410-418. For example, one of components 410-416 may beconfigured to generate the unique message identifier and/or communicatedirectly with transaction management engine 106. The message also maytravel via one or more intermediate nodes on its way to the destinationnode. In some examples, a node is a component such as components410-418, which may be running an application. In some examples, theunique identifier and the routing of the message to its destination maybe stored in a table that also includes: a geolocation of each node, anetwork from which the message originated, a type of node, the uniquenode identifier, and a time associated with the message leaving theorigination node. In some examples, transaction management collectionengine 504 provides unique message identifiers to other elements of theinteraction system to monitor the messages as they move throughout theinteraction system. Transaction management collection engine 504 alsoprovides a portion of the unique message identifiers to a transactionmanagement platform (indicated by a circle 528) for further analysis ofthe message identifiers. Such analysis may include reconciliation oflost messages, latency reporting, audit management and compliance, andother such analyses.

As mentioned previously, interoperability engine 502 is configured tostore data in data store 508. A plurality of sub-engines 510-516 ofinteroperability engine 502 are configured to perform operationsrelating to storing data in data store 508.

Interoperability engine 502 includes a tagging engine 510 configured toperform semantic tagging and indexing of data. Tagging engine 510therefore is configured to receive data, read metadata associated withthe data, semantically scan the content of the data, and associate oneor more tags with the data. Tagging engine 510 may therefore have accessto hundreds, thousands, or even more possible tags. These tags may havebeen input by users, learned, pre-defined, generated by outsidethird-party mapping sources, and/or gathered from other componentsand/or data stores of the interaction system. For example, if the datais a chart for an entity, the tagging engine may be configured to readany metadata associated with the chart to determine which tags may beappropriate to associate with the chart. From the metadata, taggingengine 510 may determine that the chart is for a type of entity byreading metadata indicating that an author field is populated with thename of another particular type of entity. Tagging engine 510 may haveaccess to other data to compare the analyzed metadata against (e.g., toidentify that the author's name corresponds to Dr. Brown who is anoncologist). Other examples, of metadata that may be included in one ormore fields include author, document type, creation time and date, lastupdate time and date, upload time and data, geographic location, uniqueID associated with the client or facility where the data originated, andother similar fields. The tags may be stored in association with thedata (e.g., the chart) and/or may be stored independent from the databut include an identifier such that when searching tags the data may becapable of population.

Continuing with the example from above, if the data is a chart for afirst type of entity, tagging engine 510 may be configured to read thecontent of the chart to determine which tags may be appropriate toassociate with the chart. For example, this may comprise analyzing thecontent of the chart (i.e., individual pages) semantically to look forartifacts (e.g., keywords, phrases, and the like) in the content. Theseartifacts may be identified by tagging engine 510 and used to decidewhich tags to associate with the document. In some examples, semanticscanning may involve filtering out words (e.g., articles, such as “a”and “the”), phrases, and the like. Similar to the reading of metadata,the tags may be pre-defined, user-defined, learned, and the like. Insome examples, reading metadata associated with messages may providemeaning and/or give context to the particular record of data. Thismeaning and/or context may assist tagging engine 510 to determine one ormore tags to associate with the data. The tags may be chosen, forexample, based on values of particular fields in the data, detecting afrequency of one or more words in a document or metadata and/or of a setof related words (e.g., tagging a record with “cancer” upon detectingwords such as tumor, metastasize, chemotherapy, radiation, oncology,malignant, stage 3, etc.). In this manner, tagging engine 510 may alsoindex portions of the data within one or more data stores of data store508. In some examples, such indexing may be based in part on theselected tags.

Interoperability engine 502 also includes a reports engine 512configured to generate one or more reports or alerts based on data. Forexample, reports engine 512 may generate reports when certain types ofdata are received or when data with certain characteristics is received.Reports engine 512 may also generate alerts. The reports and/or alertsgenerated by reports engine 512 may be outputted in the form of one ormore communications to an administrator, an authorized user, or othersimilar user via a user device. Such communications can include, forexample, signals, sirens, electronic notifications, popups, emails, andthe like. Content of such communications may include informationcharacterizing a performance metric, efficiency and/or outcomes;identifying concerning patterns; identifying losses of data; and thelike. In some examples, the content is presented in the form of one ormore documents, tables, figures, charts, graphs, and the like.

Interoperability engine 502 also includes a rules engine 514 configuredto create and manage business rules, condition-response rules,alert/reports rules, data-formatting rules, data-sharing rules,transmission rules, aggregation rules, user authorization rules, andother similar rules. Such rules may be user-defined, fixed, learned byelements of the interaction system, and any combination of theforegoing. Finally, interoperability engine 502 includes an applicationengine 516 configured to provide service-oriented architecture webservices.

Data store 508 includes an electronic record information data store 518(“record data store 518”), a general data store 520, an operational datastore 522, an entity-based data store 524, and a streaming cachingstorage 526. While data store 508 is illustrated as including a fixednumber of data stores and storage elements, it is understood that datastore 508 can include any suitable number of data stores and storageelements, including more than illustrated or less than illustrated.

In some examples, a data query script is provided to query a first datastore and/or to obtain data for populating a data store. Such scriptcould query a data store described herein (e.g., data store 508) and/orcould be used to obtain data to populate a data store described herein(e.g., data store 508). In one instance, the script is configured to berepeatedly executed, so as to repeatedly draw data from a source datastore. The retrieved data can then be formatted, filtered, sorted and/orprocessed and then stored, presented and/or otherwise used. In thismanner, the script can be used to produce streaming analytics.

In some instances, the data query script, when executed, identifies eachof the data stores of interest. Identifying the data stores of interestinvolves identifying at least a portion of data from the data storessimultaneously and/or sequentially. For example, the script can identifycorresponding data stores (e.g., or components of a single data store ormultiple data stores) that pertain to one or more similar variables butthat differ in one or more other variables. Once the portion of the datafrom the data stores is identified, a representation of the identifieddata can be output to one or more files (e.g., Extensible MarkupLanguage (XML) files) and/or in one or more formats. Such outputs canthen be used to access the data within one or more relational databaseaccessible using Structured Query Language (SQL). Queries made using SQLcan be made sequentially or in parallel. Results from an SQL query maybe stored in a separate database or in an XML file that may be updatedeither in part or as a whole. The data query script may be executedperiodically, in accordance with a user-defined rule, in accordance witha machine-defined or machine-learned rule, and in other suitable manner.

[Within record data store 518 is retained data including electronicrecord information. In some examples, the information within record datastore 518 is organized according to entity identifying information.Thus, record data store 518, in some examples, includes individuallyidentifiable information. But it may also include de-identifiedinformation.

Within general data store 520 is retained data. The data may be storedin a relational database format or in any other suitable format. Thus,the data within general data store 520 may be retained in a datastructure that includes one or more tables capable of accessing eachother. In some examples, general data store 520 includes a subset of theinformation that is included in operational data store 522.

Within operational data store 522 is retained data in a relationaldatabase format. Thus, the data within operational data store 522 may beretained in a data structure that includes one or more data structures(e.g., tables) capable of accessing each other. Operational data store522 is an example of an operational data warehouse. In operational datastore 522 is joined many different types of data. F2. In some examples,the operational data ware house 522 includes data pertaining to decisionmaking as discussed herein and other data typically used by conventionalbusiness concerns.

Within entity-based data store 524 is retained data in a non-relationaldatabase format. Thus, the data within entity-based data store 524 maybe retained in a structure other than tables. Such structure may beappropriate for large and complex data sets. In some examples,entity-based data store 524 (or any other data store) may be a unifiedsystem, which may include: a document-centric, schema-agnostic,structure-aware, clustered, transactional, secure, database server withbuilt-in search and a full suite of application services. An example ofsuch a unified system may be Marklogic. Entity-based data store 524 cansupport data aggregation, data organization, data indexing, data taggingand mapping to semantic standards, concept matching, concept extraction,machine learning algorithms, concept discovery, concept mining, andtransformation of personal record information. In some examples,entity-based data store 524 includes data pertaining to decision making(similar to general data store 520) as discussed that is organized andaccessed in a different manner. For example, the data withinentity-based data store 524 may be optimized for providing and receivinginformation over one or more information exchanges. In some examples,entity-based data store 524 includes a subset of the information that isincluded in operational data store 522.

Finally, in some examples, streaming caching storage 526 is a streamingdata cache data store. As discussed previously, certain components ofcomponents 410-418 may support streaming data to other components oruser devices. Streaming caching storage 526 is a location wherestreaming data can be cached. For example, assume that component 418 isa piece of equipment operating at Location A and that a user using acomputer in Location B desires to view a live of substantially livestream of outputs of the piece of equipment. Component 418 can send aportion of data to streaming caching storage 526 which can retain theportion of the data for a certain period of time (e.g., 1 day). Thus,streaming caching storage 526 is configured to cache data that can bestreamed.

Diagram 500 also includes data store integrity engine 506. In someexamples, data store integrity engine 506 is configured to ensureintegrity of the information within data store 508. For example, datastore integrity engine 506 applies one or more rules to decide whetherinformation within all or part of data store 508 should be scrubbed,removed, or adjusted. In this manner, confidence is increased that theinformation within data store 508 is accurate and current.

FIG. 6 shows a diagram 600 which depicts a portion of architecture stack300 according to an embodiment of the invention. In particular, thediagram 600 includes access management layer 310, audit/compliance layer312, agency layer 314, and a portion of interface layer 316.

Access management layer 310, as illustrated in the diagram 600, includesan access management engine 602. Access management engine 602 is anexample of access management engine 222. Generally, access managementengine 602 can be configured to manage access to elements oftransformative integration engine 202 by different components,applications, and user devices.

Access management engine 602 within access management layer 310 alsoprovides functionality similar to an operating system. For example,access management engine 602 includes a plurality of engines configuredto manage different aspects of interacting with elements of theinteraction system. For example, a user who desires to access portionsof data retained in data store 508, may do so by interacting with accessmanagement engine 602 using one or more applications (not shown). Thus,access management engine 602 includes a variety of engines to enablesuch interaction. The engines include, for example, an authenticationaccess engine 604, a login engine 606, a user preference engine 608, asecurity engine 610, an analytics and search engine 612, a data accessengine 614, an update engine 616, and a streaming data engine 618. Thedifferent engines of access management engine 602 can define routines,protocols, standards, and the like for interacting with elements of theinteraction system.

Beginning first with authentication access engine 604, authenticationaccess engine 604 evaluates the rules and conditions under which usersmay access elements of the interaction system; in particular, theconditions under which users may access data within data store 508.These rules and conditions may be user-defined (e.g., by anadministrator or reviewer), learned over time, and/or may be dynamicallyupdated and/or evaluated based on characteristics of the user or theuser's device attempting to access the interaction system. The rules andconditions may indicate the types of users who have particular types ofaccess within the interaction system. The type of access may also relateto the degree to which data is identified/de-identified. In someexamples, a user desiring access to data provides certain identifyinginformation and authentication access engine 604 authenticates anidentity of the user.

Login engine 606 evaluates the rules and conditions under which usersare able to log in to the interaction system or access applicationsassociated with the interaction system. These rules and conditions maybe user-defined (e.g., by an administrator), learned over time, and alsomay be dynamically updated and/or evaluated based on characteristics ofthe user or the user's device attempting to access the interactionsystem. Thus, while authentication access engine 604 evaluates the rulesto determine which users may access the interaction system, login engine606 evaluates the particular credentials, profiles, etc. of the users.For example, login engine 606 can confirm that an entered username(e.g., and password), provided biometric data or code or identifier in ascanned tag or badge matches that in an authorized user data structure.

Login engine 606 evaluates one or more user profiles associated witheach authenticated user. In some examples, a user profile includes ausername, password, and other information associated with the user. Forexample, a user profile may indicate characteristics about the user.

User preference engine 608 evaluates the rules and conditions underwhich user are able to store and update one or more user preferencescorresponding to access of the interaction system or access toapplications associated with the interaction system. These rules andconditions may be user-defined (e.g., by the user or administrator), andmay include rules for default preferences. For example, using userpreference engine 608, a user may indicate a format in which the userprefers to receive outputted information, display characteristics of agraphical user interface associated with the user, and other similaruser preference settings. For example, the user may indicate thatcertain types of reports and/or alerts are to be sent to the user.

Security engine 610 evaluates the rules and conditions for ensuring thesecurity of access to the elements of the interaction system. In someexamples, these rules and conditions are determined by administrators ofthe interaction system. In some examples, security engine 610 provides aplurality of computer virus protection services. These services can becalled up and implemented when accessing the interaction system oraccessing applications associated with the interaction system. The rulesand conditions may be based on roles, based on profiles, based ondomains, and any other suitable security configuration. For example,because the interaction system may include sensitive data, securityengine 610 may enforce a domain-based rule that protects certainsensitive information (e.g., identifying information).

Analytics and search engine 612 evaluates the rules and conditions underwhich users can search for data within the interaction system and accessanalytics relating to the interaction system. In some examples, theserules and conditions are user-defined or learned over time in accordancewith search engine optimization techniques. For example, analytics andsearch engine 612 is used to search within data store 508 for particulardata. Analytics and search engine 612 supports any conventionalsearching algorithms. For example, search engine 612 can be used tosearch within various fields and potential field values. In someexamples, search engine 612 can provide analytics, such as statistics,graphs, distributions and/or comparative analysis pertaining toparticular entities and/or characteristics. Such information may beselected by a user and presented on a user interface.

Data access engine 614 evaluates the rules and conditions under whichusers may operation in order to access particular data within data store508. In some examples, these rules and conditions are user-defined orlearned over time. For example, data access engine 614 may indicate theroutines, subroutines, or other logic needed for an application toaccess certain portions of data store 508. For example, whileauthentication access engine 604 and login engine 606 may manage whichusers can access parts of the interaction system, data access engine 614may manage how authenticated users access data within data store 508. Tothis end, data access engine 614 may enforce and/or evaluate certainrules managing how users access different components of the interactionsystem. In some examples, data access engine 614 may be used to actuallyaccess data within data store 508 (e.g., extract, download, or otherwiseaccess). In some examples, data access engine 614 may define procedures,protocols, and the like for accessing data. The protocols and proceduresfor accessing data access engine 614 (like the other engines of accessmanagement engine 602) may be provided to developers in the form of asoftware development kit (SDK). SDKs may enable developers writeapplications that can effectively communicate with elements (e.g., datastore 508) of the interaction system. In particular, applications thatcan access a portion of the data stored within active unified data layer308.

Update engine 616 evaluates the rules and conditions for providingupdates to other engines within access management engine 602, plug-insfor applications that access the interaction system, and for othersimilar elements of the interaction system. For example, updates may begenerated at runtimes, at defined time intervals, upon request by auser, upon receiving a threshold quantity of new or changed data. Oncean update is performed, an interface may be refreshed, a report may besent indicating that the update was successful or unsuccessful, or thelike.

Streaming data engine 618 defines the rules and conditions for enablingstreaming of data between components and user devices of the interactionsystem. For example, streaming data engine 618 may enable component 414to stream data. Streamed data may include live or substantially liveaudio or video feeds, results of tests, output from equipment ordevices, and any other suitable type of data capable of being streamed.In some examples, the data may be streamed to other components or userdevices within the network or outside the network. In order to establisha streaming transmission, streaming data engine 618 may identify astreaming destination and a streaming origin. Next, streaming dataengine 618 may pair the two and enable streaming. This may includeallocated bandwidth within one or more network devices associated withthe interaction system. Streaming data engine 618 may also adjust thequality of the streaming data based on the availability of bandwidth. Insome examples, streaming data engine 618 may receive incoming streams(and continuously present the stream or monitor for particular data(e.g., exceeding a threshold, exhibiting an above-threshold change,having a particular value)).

Within audit/compliance layer 312 is located an access log engine 622.Access log engine 622 evaluates the rules and conditions for loggingaccess to the interaction system by users, applications, devices, andthe like. Logging access includes, in some examples, logging dataconventionally collected by access log engines running in similarenvironments. Access log engine 622 can use this data to generate andtransmit reports, for example, to stakeholders of the interaction systemsuch that they can make informed decisions regarding that is accessingthe interaction system and for what purposes.

Within agency layer 314 is located an agency engine 624. Agency engine624 evaluates the rules and conditions under which agencies can accessthe interaction system. For example, agencies that may use agency engine624 include agencies to which the interaction system providescompliance, tracking, or other reporting information. For example,agency engine 624 may be used to track one or more performanceindicators identified by a government agency and/or to provide reportinstances of defined types of events. Thus, in some examples, agovernment agency uses agency engine 624 to collect data pertaining tocompliance of the interaction system with one or more statutes orregulations. In some examples, a university is an agency that usesagency engine 624 to collect data pertaining to one or more studies. Insome examples, agency engine 624 can identify one or more entities(e.g., governmental agencies) that are to receive reports pertaining tooperations or events and what types of data are to be reported to thoseentities. Agency engine 624 can then collect the pertinent data,potentially format and/or analyze the data, and facilitate transmissionof (e.g., raw, formatted and/or analysis of) the data to the appropriateagency.

FIG. 7 shows a diagram 700 which depicts a portion of architecture stack300 according to an embodiment of the invention. In particular, diagram700 includes interface layer 316, and application/device layer 320.Within interface layer 316 is located interface engine 702 (e.g.,interface engine 224). Interface engine 702 is configured to generateone or more interfaces (e.g., graphical user interface 726, programmaticinterface 728, and/or web interface 730) to enable data to flow to userdevices 710, 712, and 714 via respective applications 720, 722, and 724.In some examples, the interfaces of interface engine 702 are embodied inhardware, software, or some combination of both. Within interface layer316 communications and inputs directed to interacting with elements ofaccess management layer 310 may be embodied.

Graphical user interface 726 is any suitable graphical user interfaceconfigured to interact with elements of the interaction system.Programmatic interface 728 includes an application programminginterface, a programmatic user interface, and other similar interfacesfor defining core functions for accessing elements of the interactionsystem. For example, programmatic interface 728 may specify softwarecomponents in terms of their operations. Web interface 730 is anysuitable web interface configured to interact with elements of theinteraction system. Any of the interfaces described herein may beconfigured to receive user input, present dynamic presentations thatdepend on user input, and otherwise respond to user input. In someexamples, such input may be provided via one or more input devices(e.g., a keyboard, touchscreen, joystick, mouse, microphone, devicescapable of capturing inputs, and the like) operated by one or more usersof user devices 706-714. Output may be provided via one or more outputdevices (e.g., a display or speaker).

Interface engine 702 is utilized by applications internal to theinteraction system and external to the interaction system to accessdata. In some examples, the applications that are internal includeapplications that are developed for internal use by various entitiesassociated with the interaction system. In some examples, theapplications that are external to the interaction system includeapplications that are developed for external use by those that are notassociated with the interaction system.

Generally, within application/device layer 320, applications 716-724which communicate with other elements of architecture stack 300 usingthe interfaces generated by interface engine 702 are defined. Thisincludes detailing how applications 716-724 are to interact with theinterfaces generated by interface engine 702 for accessing data. Forexample, interacting may include accepting inputs at user devices706-714 to access data and, in response, providing the data, prompts, orother types of interaction with one or more users of the user devices716-714. Thus, applications 716-724 may be related to one or more of theinterfaces generated by interface engine 702. For example, application720 may be interact with a graphical user interface (whether generatedby interface engine 702 or otherwise) to interact with other elements ofthe interaction system. Interacting may include receiving inputs at thegraphical user interface via application 720, providing output data tothe graphical user interface application 720, enabling interaction withother user devices, other applications, and other elements of theinteraction system, and the like. For example, some of the inputs maypertain to aggregation of data. These inputs may include, for example,types of data to aggregate, aggregation parameters, filters ofinterested data, keywords of interested data, selections of particulardata, inputs relating to presentation of the data on the graphical userinterface, and the like. Providing output data may include providing theaggregated data on the graphical user interface, outputting theinformation to one of the other user devices 706-714 running one of theother applications 716-724.

Turning now to the details of applications 720, 722, and 724. In someexamples, applications 720, 722, and 724 include a variety of differentapplications that can be designed for particular users and/or uses. Inone example, application 720 includes dashboards, widgets, windows,icons, and the like that are customized for an particular entity. Insome examples, application 720 may present different data depending on aspecialty associated with the entity and protected informationassociated with the entity. In this manner, application 720 adapts andautomatically adjusts depending on the context in which the entity isusing the application. In some examples, the data indicates performancestatistics for the entity, metrics relating to where the entity fallsalong a distribution of other similar entities, outlier instances,trends in events or actions, and the like. Application 720 may beconfigured to receive input, adjust presentations, present unpromptedalerts, adjust display of content, move more relevant content to theforeground, move less relevant content to the background, populate formsfor the entity.

In another example, application 722 may be specific for nurses or typesof nurses. In this example, application 722 may include dashboards,widgets, windows, icons, and the like that are customized to individualnurses. Similar to the example discussed above pertaining to the doctor,in some examples, application 724 may present different data dependingon a position of the nurse. In this manner, application 722 adapts andautomatically adjusts depending on the context in which the nurse isusing the application. For example, the nurse may receive data, such astest results.

In some examples, application 724 may be a multi-role application foradministrators and is used to manage entities constitute the populationof the entities or organizations within the interaction system. Similarto the other examples discussed, in some examples, application 724 maypresent different data depending on a role of the user who is usingapplication 724. In this manner, application 724 adapts andautomatically adjusts depending on characteristics of the user who isusing application 724. In this manner, application 724 can providedifferent data depending on the role of the user. For example, whetherdata presented includes identifiable or de-identified information maydepend on a position of the user.

In some examples, application 724 may be a business intelligenceapplication. In this example, application 724 is used to displaybusiness information generated by components of the interaction system.This business information can be used for operations, planning, andforecasting. Such business information may include data because suchdata may impact operations, planning, forecasting, and the like.Accordingly, application 724 may present de-identified information inthe form of one or more metrics, indicators, or the like as they pertainto business intelligence.

Applications 716 and 718 shown in connection with interface engine 702are applications developed by third-parties. In some examples, suchapplications include any suitable application that benefits fromaccessing data. The interaction system may include data pertaining tohundreds of thousands of entities. Having data pertaining to so manyentities presents security concerns. For example, much of the data maybe identifying data. Accordingly, data that may be accessed byapplications 716 and 718 may be limited. In some examples, an entity ofthe interaction system may use one of applications 716, 718 to accesshis or her own data. In this example, the identity of the entity may beverified in accordance with techniques described herein.

User devices 706-714 are any suitable user devices capable of runningapplications 716-724. User devices 706-714 are examples of the userdevice 228. In some examples, the user devices include: mobile phones,tablet computers, laptop computers, wearable mobile devices, desktopcomputers, set-top boxes, pagers, and other similar user devices. Insome examples, at least some of user devices 706-714 are the samedevices as at least some of the one or more components 410-418. In someexamples, user devices 706-714 may include complementary layers toapplication/device layer 320 and/or receiving layer 302. For example,user devices 706-714 may include a transmission layer, a generationlayer, and/or a receiving layer to communicate data atapplication/device layer 320 and at receiving layer 302.

Turning now to FIG. 8, an interaction system 800 is shown in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention. Interaction system 800 includes aninternal organization 822 including a transformative integration engine802. The transformative integration engine 802 is an example oftransformative integration engine 202 previously discussed. Interactionsystem 800 is illustrated as an example configuration for implementingthe techniques described herein. In particular, a configuration ofelements as illustrated in FIG. 8, at least in some examples,communicates according to the layers of architecture stack 300. Forexample, internal organization 822 includes generation components804(1), 804(2), and 804(N) which provide data to aggregation servers806(1)-806(N).

Generation components 804(1), 804(2), and 804(N) operate in accordancewith receiving layer 302. In some examples, generation component 804(1)is a piece of equipment, generation component 804(2) is computer with adata collection device, a type of lab system, and generation component804(N) is a terminal. Aggregation servers 806(1)-806(N) operate inaccordance with aggregation layer 304. Aggregation servers 806(1)-806(N)share data with data storage servers 808(1)-808(N) via one or moreinternal network(s) 810. In some examples, internal network 810 is anysuitable network capable of handling transmission of data. For example,internal network 810 may be any suitable combination of wired orwireless networks. In some examples, internal network 810 may includeone or more secure networks. Data storage servers 808(1)-808(N) areconfigured to store data in accordance with active unified data layer308. Data storage servers 808(1)-808(N) include database servers, filestorage servers, and other similar data storage servers.

Access management servers 812(1)-812(N) manage access to the dataretained in the data storage servers 808(1)-808(N). Access managementservers 812(1)-812(N) communicate with the other elements of interactionsystem 800 via internal network 810 and in accordance with accessmanagement layer 310.

Interface servers 814(1)-814(N) provide one or more interfacesapplications to interact with the other elements of interaction system800. Interface servers 814(1)-814(N) provide the one or more interfacesand communicate with the other elements of interaction system 800 viainternal network 810 and in accordance with interface layer 316. Theinterfaces generated by the interface servers 814(1)-814(N) can be usedby internal user devices 816(1)-816(N) and external user devices 818(1),818(2), and 818(N) to interact with elements of interaction system 800.

Internal user devices 816(1)-816(N) are examples of user devices706-714. In some examples, internal user devices 816(1)-816(N) runapplications via the interfaces generated by interface servers814(1)-814(N). As an additional example, external user devices 818(1),818(2), and 818(N) can run applications developed by third parties thataccess the other elements of interaction system 800 via the interfacesgenerated by interface servers 814(1)-814(N).

External user devices 818(1), 818(2), and 818(N) access the interfacesvia external network 820. In some examples, external network 820 is anunsecured network such as the Internet. External user devices 818(1),818(2), and 818(N) are examples of user devices 706-714. External userdevice 818(1) is a mobile device. In some examples, the mobile devicemay be configured to run an application to access interaction system800. Similarly, the other external user devices 818(2)-818(N) runapplications that enable them to access interaction system 800. Whileinteraction system 800 is shown as implemented using discrete servers,it is understood that it may be implemented using virtual computingresources and/or in a web-based environment.

FIG. 9 shows an illustration of a transformation 900 of a resource-usagetime block according to an embodiment of the invention. Transformation900 may be performed, for example, by load balancing system 145,controlling device 136 and/or client device 105 (e.g., receiving usageand/or transformation data).

A requested time block 905 can be defined by a duration (e.g., inminutes or hours) and can be associated with a request for assignment ofa resource (e.g., unit). Requested time block 905 may have a durationdefined for completing a task associated with the request.

Requested time block 905 can then be transformed into a new requestedtime block, referred to as a transformed block 910. The transformationmay be based on usage data that may be associated with requestparameters, such as (for example) a client, resource, unit, facility,task type, geographical location, current time, and/or requested timeassociated with the request. The usage data may identify absolute orrelative usage times associated with one or more request parameters. Forexample, the usage data may indicate that—at a particular facility andfor a particular task type—90% of actual usages corresponded todurations between 75 and 90 minutes. As another example, the usage datamay indicate that—for a particular client—the average extent to whichactual usage times exceeded the requested usage times was 15%.

The usage data may be retrieved from a usage data store (e.g., usagedata store 134), which may be local to or remote from a deviceperforming the operation. In the latter instance, a communication may betransmitted from the transforming device to a device managing a usagedata store that may include the one or more request parameters and arequest to provide usage data corresponding to the request parameter(s).

The transformation can be unconditionally or conditionally performed.For conditional performance, a transformation may be conditioned upon(for example) detecting usage data that indicates that actual usagediffered from (or exceeded) requested usage (e.g., at least a thresholdpercentage of the time and/or by an average amount that exceeds adefined threshold). To illustrate as an example, an average actual usagetime and an average requested usage time may be identified for one ormore request parameters, and a requested time block may be onlytransformed if the average actual usage time exceeds the averagerequested usage time by at least 5%. As another illustrative example, anaverage actual usage time may be identified for one or more requestparameters, and if it is determined that a requested usage time(corresponding to requested time block 905) differs from the averageactual usage time by 15 minutes or more, a transformation may beperformed.

Transforming requested time block 905 may include, for example, addingtime to the block, subtracting time from the block and/or multiplying ordividing a duration of block by a factor. An amount of time that isadded or subtracted or a factor may be determined based on an analysisof usage data.

In some instances, one or more buffer time blocks 915 are identified.Each identified buffer time block may have a duration that is (forexample) fixed, dependent on one or more request parameters (e.g., tasktype), dependent on a duration of the transformed block, dependent on aunit associated with a timetable, dependent on a facility associatedwith a timetable, and/or dependent on input (e.g., from a client orentity associated with a resource). In some instances, at least onebuffer time block is associated with a time period for preparing aresource for usage during the time block, and/or at least one buffertime block is associated with a time period for at least partlyrestoring (e.g., cleaning) a resource after usage during the time block.In instances, where multiple buffer time blocks 910 are identified(e.g., to straddle a transformed block), they may, but need not, have asame duration.

A buffer time block 915 may have a duration that is determined in anabsolute or relative sense. For example, a look-up table may indicatethat a buffer time block is to be 30 minutes for a particular unit, or abuffer protocol may indicate that a buffer time block is to have aduration that is 10% of the transformed block.

One or more buffer time blocks 915 can be combined with transformedblock 910 to produce a task-assignment time block 920. Task-assignmentblock 920 may be produced so as to have a duration that is equal to asum of transformed block 910 and one or more buffer time blocks 915.

One or more timetables 925 a, 925 b may then be identified. Each of theidentified timetables 925 a, 925 b may include at least one gap oropening of a duration at least as long as task-assignment block 920. Itwill be appreciated that, in some instances, a duration oftask-assignment block 920 is dependent upon a resource, such that aminimum required opening duration may vary across timetables.

The timetable(s) 925 a, 925 b can include one(s) associated with orpotentially associated with a request corresponding to requested timeblock 905. For example, in one instance, each of the timetable(s) can beassociated with a resource, unit and/or facility identified in therequest. As another example, each of the one or more timetables may beassociated with a resource having characteristics that correspond to therequest (e.g., have a particular specification or capability, arelocated within a defined distance from a client associated with therequest and/or include a particular type of component). As yet anotherexample, each (or at least one) of the one or more timetables may beassociated with a past-assignment characteristics corresponding to theclient (e.g., indicating that the client used a resource associated withthe timetable at least once or a defined number of times).

The one or more timetables 925 a, 925 b may be identified by queryingone or more resource timetable data stores 138, which may be local to orremote from a device performing transformation 900. The query mayinclude one or more request parameters and/or selection-relatedparameters. For example, a load-balancing or selection protocol mayindicate that timetable is to be selected that has an opening within thenext five days, that stays on schedule at least 50% of the time and/orthat is associated with an average response time (e.g., to confirm orreject an assignment) of less than an hour.

The one or more timetables 925 a, 925 b may then be evaluated based on aprotocol (e.g., a load-balancing or selection protocol). The protocolmay weight timetable-associated features such as how close (in terms ofdistance or time) an associated resource is to a client, whether aclient has been assigned other time blocks in the timetable (or inanother timetable associated with a same facility) generally or on asame day as the opening, how closely a time of the opening matches aduration of the task-assignment block (e.g., either favoring closematches or openings with extra time), and/or an extent to which adifference between a time of the opening and a duration

The protocol may be (for example) pre-defined, generated based on inputfrom the client and/or defined for a task type. The protocol may be atleast partly defined based on machine learning, which may prioritize(for example) efficient scheduling of a resource (e.g., to avoid gaps ina final timetable or to reduce or minimize usage delays) and/ordistributing assignments across resources.

In some instances, when a timetable gap is identified, an assignment isgenerated such that the gap or part of the gap is assigned to a clientassociated with the request. The assignment may be associated with theclient, the request and/or one or more request parameters (e.g., a tasktype). Generating the assignment may include modifying the timetable toindicate that the resource is not available during the assigned timeperiod.

In some instances, one or more communications are transmitted (e.g., toa client device associated with a request or to a controlling deviceassociated with the timetable or with a resource associated with thetimetable). The communication(s) may identify assignment details, suchas (for example) a start time, a duration (e.g., of the transformedblock or the task-assignment block), a task type, a resource identifier(e.g., an identifier of a unit and/or facility), a client, a location ofa resource and/or other usage details. A communication may include analert that an assignment has been generated and/or a request to approvethe assignment. For example, a final assignment of a time block may beconditioned upon receiving a response communication from a client deviceand/or controlling device that indicates that the assignment isaccepted. In various instances, the assignment time block may, but neednot, be held for a period of time. Other response options may also beavailed, such as an option that enables a client or resource-associatedentity to identify an adjusted assignment detail (e.g., to indicate thatan initial requested usage time is to be used instead of a new requestedusage time determined based on a transformation).

At an assigned time, a resource may be availed to a client. For example,a component of the resource may be configured to detect an identifier ofthe client (e.g., a badge), a same component or different device mayverify that the client is associated with an assignment at that time,and the resource may be unlocked for use by the client. As anotherexample, a presentation may be generated at or around a time of theassignment on a controlling device or monitoring device that identifiesthe client.

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of a process 1000 for facilitating assignmentsof tasks to resources in particular time intervals based on usagepatterns and resource capacities. Part or all of process 1000 may beperformed, for example, by load balancing system 145 and/or controllingdevice 136. In some instances, client device 105 may perform part ofprocess 1000.

Process 1000 begins at block 1005 where a first electronic communicationis received from a client device. The first electronic communicationincludes a request to use a resource to complete a task. An indicationthat the request is to use a resource for completion of a task may beimplicit or explicit (e.g., via specification of one or more taskparameters, such as a task type). The first electronic communication mayinclude a communication received via, for example, a webpage or apppage. In some instances, the request may include one or more requestparameters and/or a requested usage time.

At block 1010, a task type corresponding to the request and a clientcorresponding to the request are identified. In one instance, the tasktype and/or the client are included in content in or metadata of thefirst electronic communication. In one instance, the task type and/orthe client are identified by looking up the task type and/or the clientusing data in or associated with the first electronic communication(e.g., an identifier of the client device or an identifier of theclient).

At block 1015, usage data is accessed, the usage data being data relatedto or including previous resource-usage durations associated with thetask type and the client. The usage data may include, for example, aduration of each of one or more previous usages of a resource by theclient and/or for the task type and/or a processed version thereof(e.g., an average). The duration(s) may be absolute or relative (e.g.,as compared to a requested usage time). The duration(s) may have beenidentified based on input data (e.g., detected at a monitoring deviceindicating that a usage has ended) and/or data detected by aresource-associated sensor (e.g., indicting when motion or a componentRFID signal is no longer detected or when a client badge is detectedleaving a resource). Usage data may be accessed, for example, byquerying a local or remote data store (e.g., with an identifier of theclient and/or task type) and/or by requesting the usage data from aremote device.

For example, block 1015 may include transmitting a request for usagedata to multiple monitoring devices. The responsive data may includeactual usage durations and corresponding requested usage may indicatethat there have been a dozen unit assignments to the client within thepast three months associated with the task type The responsive data mayidentify a usage duration and requested resource time for each of theunit assignments, such that it can be determined that (for example) allusage durations exceeded a requested usage duration, and that on averagean actual usage duration exceeded a requested usage duration by 30minutes.

At block 1020, a predicted task performance duration (e.g., new usagetime) is identified based on the usage data. Block 1020 may include, forexample, determining whether a predicted task performance duration is tobe set to a requested usage time. Such a determination may be based on,for example, a percentage of past requests for which an actual usagetime was less than or equal to (or within a defined absolute or relativetime period from) a requested usage time. If the percentage was lessthan a defined threshold, the predicted task performance duration may beset to the requested usage time. Such a determination may be based on,for example, multiplying a requested usage time (e.g., as identifiedbased on request-associated input or analysis of population usage data)by a factor identified based on an extent to which previous requestedusage times differed from actual usage times (or adjusting requestedusage times by adding or subtracting an absolute time amount based onusage data). Such a determination may be based on, for example, applyinga model built on usage data (e.g., specific to the client or moregenerally applicable) that adjusts requested usage times based onrequest and/or resource parameters.

In one instance, a predicted task-performance duration is set to arequested usage duration unless one or more conditions are satisfied.The one or more conditions may include detecting that a thresholdpercentage of actual usage durations exceeded requested usage durationsor that an average difference between actual usage durations andrequested usage durations exceeded a threshold.

At block 1025, a task-assignment duration is defined based on thepredicted task-performance duration and a buffer time period. The buffertime period may include a time period for preparing a resource and/orrestoring a resource. The buffer time period may be (for example) fixed,dependent on one or more request parameters (e.g., task type), dependenton a duration of the transformed block, dependent on a unit associatedwith a timetable, dependent on a facility associated with a timetable,and/or dependent on input (e.g., from a client or entity associated witha resource). Thus, it will be appreciated that, in instances where abuffer time period depends on resource-related parameters, atask-assignment duration may vary across resources. The task-assignmentduration may be, for example, defined to be equal to a sum or othercombination of the predicted task performance duration and the buffertime period.

At block 1030, a timetable of each of one or more resources (e.g.,units) is accessed. Block 1030 may include, for example, transmitting arequest for a current timetable (e.g., generally or for a specified timeperiod) to each of one or more controlling devices and receiving aresponse or querying a local data store. The one or more resources mayinclude resources that comply with request parameters and/or with aresource-selection protocol (e.g., that are associated with acharacteristic compliant with or corresponding to a request-associatedfeature, such as being associated with a resource located within adefined distance from the client device).

The timetable may be accessed via a query to a local or remote datastore or via transmitting a request communication to one or more otherdevices (e.g., one or more other controlling devices). The timetable mayindicate when a corresponding resource is available to be assigned, whena corresponding resource is available to be assigned to a particularclient (e.g., indicating general availability and/or being held for theclient) and/or when a corresponding resource has been assigned toanother client and/or for another task.

At block 1035, one or more availabilities are identified in the one ormore timetables. Each of the one or more availabilities have a durationthat is at least as long as the task-assignment duration. Each of theone or more availabilities may include a general availability that maybe assigned to any authorized client or a restricted availability thatis being held for the client.

At block 1040, a second electronic communication is transmitted to theclient device that identifies one or more specifications of each of atleast one of the one or more availabilities. The one or morespecifications may include (for example) a start time, duration,resource identifier, identifier of an associated facility, resourcelocation, and/or resource specification.

In one instance, the second electronic communication identifies one ormore specifications of each of the one or more availabilities. In oneinstance, the second electronic communication identifies one or morespecifications of each of an incomplete subset of the one or moreavailabilities (e.g., if the one or more availabilities includes aplurality of availabilities). The incomplete subset may be selectedusing a selection protocol, such as one that uses a pseudo-randomselection technique, that is biased towards one or more how soon theavailability is, that is biased towards how geographically close theresource is to a location associated with the electronic request, thatis biased towards resources associated with past assignments associatedwith the client, and so on.

The second electronic communication may be transmitted to the clientdevice, for example, via a webpage, app page, SMS message, or email. Thesecond electronic communication may include data to facilitate apresentation on the client device that identifies the one or morespecifications of each of the at least one availabilities and/or thatenables a client to provide input that accepts a given availability,rejects a given availability, and/or selects amongst multipleavailabilities.

In one instance, the second electronic communication further includesthe task-assignment duration and/or the predicted task-performanceduration (e.g., which may differ from an original requested usage timeidentified by a client). The second electronic communication may includedata to facilitate a (e.g., same or different) presentation thatidentifies the task-assignment duration and/or predictedtask-performance duration and/or that enables a client to provide inputthat accepts, rejects or modifies one or more of the durations. Forexample, input may be provided to indicate that an initially identifiedresource usage duration is to be used instead of a predictedtask-performance duration.

At block 1045, a third electronic communication is received from theclient device that accepts an availability of the at least one or moreavailabilities. For example, the third electronic communication may betransmitted in response to a client selecting a representation of anavailability on a webpage or app page or affirmatively responding to anemail or SMS message that identifies an availability.

At block 1050, a fourth electronic communication is transmitted to acontrolling device. The fourth electronic communication identifies theclient, the availability and task information (e.g., type of task). Thefourth electronic communication may be configured to facilitate apresentation on the controlling device that identifies the client,availability and task information and that enables an entity associatedwith the device to provide input that accepts, rejects or modifies anassignment of the task to the resource at a time associated with theavailability.

If the assignment is accepted, a timetable of the resource may bemodified to reflect the assignment (e.g., and to change an availabilityof the resource during the availability) and/or a communication may betransmitted to the client device to indicate that the task has beenassigned to the availability time period.

Subsequently, a client device may directly communicate with a resourcedevice (e.g., controlling device or monitoring device) to, for example,identify an extent to which a timetable is changed, provide additionaltask details, request component availability, and so on.

Specific details are given in the above description to provide athorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it is understoodthat the embodiments can be practiced without these specific details.For example, circuits can be shown in block diagrams in order not toobscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances,well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniquescan be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring theembodiments.

Implementation of the techniques, blocks, steps and means describedabove can be done in various ways. For example, these techniques,blocks, steps and means can be implemented in hardware, software, or acombination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the processing unitscan be implemented within one or more application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signalprocessing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), fieldprogrammable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers,micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed toperform the functions described above, and/or a combination thereof.

Also, it is noted that the embodiments can be described as a processwhich is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, astructure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart can describethe operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can beperformed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of theoperations can be re-arranged. A process is terminated when itsoperations are completed, but could have additional steps not includedin the figure. A process can correspond to a method, a function, aprocedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process correspondsto a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the functionto the calling function or the main function.

Furthermore, embodiments can be implemented by hardware, software,scripting languages, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardwaredescription languages, and/or any combination thereof. When implementedin software, firmware, middleware, scripting language, and/or microcode,the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks can bestored in a machine readable medium such as a storage medium.

For a firmware and/or software implementation, the methodologies can beimplemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) thatperform the functions described herein. Any machine-readable mediumtangibly embodying instructions can be used in implementing themethodologies described herein. For example, software codes can bestored in a memory. Memory can be implemented within the processor orexternal to the processor. As used herein the term “memory” refers toany type of long term, short term, volatile, nonvolatile, or otherstorage medium and is not to be limited to any particular type of memoryor number of memories, or type of media upon which memory is stored.

Moreover, as disclosed herein, the term “storage medium” can representone or more memories for storing data, including read only memory (ROM),random access memory (RAM), magnetic RAM, core memory, magnetic diskstorage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices and/orother machine readable mediums for storing information. The term“machine-readable medium” includes, but is not limited to portable orfixed storage devices, optical storage devices, wireless channels,and/or various other storage mediums capable of storing that contain orcarry instruction(s) and/or data.

While the principles of the disclosure have been described above inconnection with specific apparatuses and methods, it is to be clearlyunderstood that this description is made only by way of example and notas limitation on the scope of the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for facilitating assignments of tasks toresources in particular time intervals based on usage patterns andresource capacities, the system comprising: one or more interfaces that:receive a first set of electronic communications from one or moremonitoring devices; receive a second set of electronic communicationsfrom one or more resource-controlling devices; transmit a third set ofelectronic communications to one or more resource-controlling devices;receive a fourth set of electronic communications from one or moreclient devices; and transmit a fifth set of electronic communications toone or more client devices; a usage monitor that: monitors the first setof electronic communications, received via the one or more interfaces,from the one or more monitoring devices to identify resource-usagedurations; and updates a usage-patterns data store to associate each ofone or more entities and each of one or more task types with usage databased on one or more of the identified resource-usage durations; atimetable mirror that: monitors the second set of electroniccommunications, received via the one or more interfaces, from the one ormore resource-controlling devices to identify updates to timetables ofthe resources that indicate capacities to accept new tasks duringparticular time periods; and updates a mirrored timetable data storebased on the identified updates to the timetables; one or moreload-balancing processors that: detect a first electronic communicationof the fourth set of electronic communications, received via the one ormore interfaces from a client device of the one or more client devices,that corresponds to an electronic request to use a resource to completea task, wherein the resource comprises medical equipment and/orlaboratory equipment; identify a task type of the task; identify aclient that corresponds to the electronic request; access usage data,from the usage-patterns data store, associated with the client and thetask type; identify, based on the usage data, a task-performanceduration that corresponds to the electronic request for using theresource; define a task-assignment duration based on thetask-performance duration and a buffer time period, wherein the buffertime period includes a time period for resource restoration; access, foreach of one or more resources and from the mirrored timetable datastore, a timetable of the resource that indicates a capacity to acceptnew tasks during particular time periods; identify an availability inthe timetable of a resource of the one or more resources that is of aduration that is at least as long as the task-assignment duration;generate a second electronic communication to be transmitted via the oneor more interfaces to the client device that identifies a start time ofthe availability; detect a third electronic communication received viathe one or more interfaces from the client device that accepts the starttime; and generate a fourth electronic communication to be transmittedvia the one or more interfaces to a device controlling use of theresource that identifies the client, the task and the availability. 2.The system for facilitating assignments of tasks to resources inparticular time intervals based on usage patterns and resourcecapacities as recited in claim 1, wherein: the first electroniccommunication includes an initial task-performance duration, and whereinidentifying the task-performance duration includes: evaluating theinitial task-performance duration based on the usage data and amodification condition; and when it is determined that the modificationcondition is satisfied, identifying the task-performance duration, thetask-performance duration being longer than the initial task-performanceduration.
 3. The system for facilitating assignments of tasks toresources in particular time intervals based on usage patterns andresource capacities as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or moreresources includes a plurality of resources, and each resource of theplurality of resources is associated with a geographical location uniquefrom amongst other resources in the plurality of resources.
 4. Thesystem for facilitating assignments of tasks to resources in particulartime intervals based on usage patterns and resource capacities asrecited in claim 1, wherein: the second electronic communicationincludes the task-performance duration and enables the client device toidentify a different task-performance duration to be used for assignmentof the task.
 5. The system for facilitating assignments of tasks toresources in particular time intervals based on usage patterns andresource capacities as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or moreload-balancing processors further: detect a fifth electroniccommunication from the device controlling use of the resource thatindicates that an assignment of the task is accepted; and generate asixth electronic communication to be transmitted to the client devicethat is indicative of assignment of the task to the resource at thestart time.
 6. The system for facilitating assignments of tasks toresources in particular time intervals based on usage patterns andresource capacities as recited in claim 1, wherein: at least some of thesecond set of electronic communications monitored by the usage monitorinclude sensor data from sensors associated with resources, and theusage monitor updates the usage-patterns data store at least in partbased on when an electronic communication indicates that a particulartype of sensor data as defined in a condition was detected.
 7. Thesystem for facilitating assignments of tasks to resources in particulartime intervals based on usage patterns and resource capacities asrecited in claim 1, wherein the one or more load-balancing processorsfurther: detect a location associated with the first electroniccommunication; identify a location of each of the one or more resources,the one or more resources including a plurality of resources; and selectat least one of the one or more resources based on the location of theresource relative to the location associated with the first electroniccommunication, the at least one of the one or more resources includingthe resource.
 8. The system for facilitating assignments of tasks toresources in particular time intervals based on usage patterns andresource capacities as recited in claim 1, wherein: the one or moreresources includes a plurality of resources; and the one or moreload-balancing processors further evaluates the timetables of theplurality of resources based on a load-balancing protocol thatprioritizes distributing assignments across resources.
 9. The system forfacilitating assignments of tasks to resources in particular timeintervals based on usage patterns and resource capacities as recited inclaim 1, wherein the usage data identifies a percentage of instances inwhich performance of a task of the task type and associated with theclient exceeded a previously identified task-performance durationcorresponding to the task.
 10. A computer-implemented method forfacilitating assignments of tasks to resources in particular timeintervals based on usage patterns and resource capacities, the methodcomprising: receiving a first electronic communication from a clientdevice that corresponds to an electronic request to use a resource tocomplete a task, wherein the resource comprises medical equipment and/orlaboratory equipment; identifying a task type of the task; identifying aclient that corresponds to the electronic request; accessing usage databased on previous resource-usage durations during which at least oneresource was used to complete previous tasks of the task type, each ofthe previous tasks being associated with the client; identifying, basedon the usage data, a task-performance duration that corresponds to theelectronic request for using the resource; defining a task-assignmentduration based on the task-performance duration and a buffer timeperiod, wherein the buffer time period includes a time period forresource restoration; accessing, for each of one or more resources, atimetable of the resource that indicates a capacity to accept new tasksduring particular time periods; identifying an availability in thetimetable of a resource of the one or more resources that is of aduration that is at least as long as the task-assignment duration;transmitting a second electronic communication to the client device thatidentifies a start time of the availability; receiving a thirdelectronic communication from the client device that accepts the starttime; and transmitting a fourth electronic communication to a devicecontrolling use of the resource that identifies the client, the task andthe availability.
 11. The method for facilitating assignments of tasksto resources in particular time intervals based on usage patterns andresource capacities as recited in claim 10, wherein: the firstelectronic communication includes an initial task-performance duration,and wherein identifying the task-performance duration includes:evaluating the initial task-performance duration based on the usage dataand a modification condition; and when it is determined that themodification condition is satisfied, identifying the task-performanceduration, the task-performance duration being longer than the initialtask-performance duration.
 12. The method for facilitating assignmentsof tasks to resources in particular time intervals based on usagepatterns and resource capacities as recited in claim 10, wherein the oneor more resources includes a plurality of resources, and each resourceof the plurality of resources is associated with a geographical locationunique from amongst other resources in the plurality of resources. 13.The method for facilitating assignments of tasks to resources inparticular time intervals based on usage patterns and resourcecapacities as recited in claim 10, wherein: the second electroniccommunication includes the task-performance duration and enables theclient device to identify a different task-performance duration to beused for assignment of the task.
 14. The method for facilitatingassignments of tasks to resources in particular time intervals based onusage patterns and resource capacities as recited in claim 10, furthercomprising: detecting a fifth electronic communication from the devicecontrolling use of the resource that indicates that an assignment of thetask is accepted; and generating a sixth electronic communication to betransmitted to the client device that is indicative of assignment of thetask to the resource at the start time.
 15. The method for facilitatingassignments of tasks to resources in particular time intervals based onusage patterns and resource capacities as recited in claim 10, furthercomprising: monitoring a first set of electronic communications from oneor more monitoring devices to identify resource-usage durations, whereinat least some of the first set of electronic communications monitoredinclude sensor data from sensors associated with resources; and updatinga usage-patterns data store at least in part based on when oneelectronic communication of the first set of electronic communicationsindicates that a particular type of sensor data as defined in acondition was detected.
 16. The method for facilitating assignments oftasks to resources in particular time intervals based on usage patternsand resource capacities as recited in claim 10, further comprising:detecting a location associated with the first electronic communication;identifying a location of each of the one or more resources, the one ormore resources including a plurality of resources; and selecting atleast one of the one or more resources based on the location of theresource relative to the location associated with the first electroniccommunication, the at least one of the one or more resources includingthe resource.
 17. The method for facilitating assignments of tasks toresources in particular time intervals based on usage patterns andresource capacities as recited in claim 10, wherein the one or moreresources includes a plurality of resources, and the method furthercomprises: evaluating the timetables of the plurality of resources basedon a load-balancing protocol that prioritizes distributing assignmentsacross resources.
 18. The method for facilitating assignments of tasksto resources in particular time intervals based on usage patterns andresource capacities as recited in claim 10, wherein the usage dataidentifies a percentage of instances in which performance of a task ofthe task type and associated with the client exceeded a previouslyidentified task-performance duration corresponding to the task.